JOHN DARLING AND SON FLOUR MILL

The John Darling and Son Flour Mill is an industrial complex including a T-shaped red brick mill building with four main stories, basement, attic and tower, a timber and iron storehouse, rail sidings, loading platform and canopy (1926-7) and reinforced concrete silo blocks (1939 and 1973).  

The John Darling and Son Flour Mill is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register: 

Criterion A  

Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.  

Criterion D 

Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects. 

Criterion H 

Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria’s history. 

The John Darling and Son Flour Mill is historically significant in representing the development of the flour industry in Victoria. It is a prominent and intact example of a large capacity roller flour mill constructed in the twentieth century. The John Darling and Son Flour Mill was constructed on a site which takes advantage of convenient rail links to the wheat belt of north west Victoria, with rail sidings, loading platform and canopy still evident. The John Darling and Son Flour Mill also contains some machinery which demonstrates the development of the flour milling process. [Criterion A] 

The John Darling and Son Flour Mill is architecturally significant as one of the most notable and intact examples of a roller flour mill constructed in the twentieth century in Victoria. It contains one of the most elaborate brick mill buildings in Victoria, comprising a tower, signage parapets, cornice and distinctive gable ends. The unusual T-shaped plan of the mill building reflects the division of the milling process: the wheat cleaning/packing operations taking place in the short section of the T, and the milling itself taking part in the long section of the T. An adjoining timber and iron storehouse is contemporaneous with the mill and along with loading platform, rail sidings and canopy, completes the complex. Later additions such as the reinforced concrete silos demonstrate the evolution of the industrial development on the site. [Criterion D] 

The John Darling and Son Flour Mill has a strong historical association with the Darling family who had a considerable influence on the flour milling industry, not only in Victoria but also throughout Australia. Large, white lettering remains on the east, north and south facades of the mill building reading ‘John Darling & Son’ which demonstrates this association. The eastern elevation contributes a bold expression of the Darling family’s perceived image in terms of the massing and relationship between elements including the picturesque tower, demonstrating landmark qualities. The John Darling and Son Flour Mill also has a strong association with Hugh Victor McKay (1865-1926) who was an inventor and pioneer industrialist of national importance, and his dream to establish an ‘industrial garden city’ at Sunshine. [Criterion H]